Serious Magic is demo'ing a DVCPRO-HD-capable version of DV Rack at NAB! It looks fantastic, and I've been testing a beta version of it. On my Dell laptop that previously would barely eke out about 2fps using the Avid Quicktime codec, this same laptop is showing full-screen full-frame-rate 720/60p while simultaneously showing the waveform, vectorscope, etc.

Were I prone to being giddy, I would be, well, giddy.

Very cool!

Any chance that Serious Magic will release a Mac version?

I bought DV Rack about 6 months ago and asked them the same question and they said no (but were very nice about it). I do everything on a Mac, but do have a Sony Vaio that I use for software that I could not get on a Mac (2 programs + DV rack). There are some other threads here in the forum on why as well. The good news is that it looks like it's running well on the the MacBook Pro's according to the thread below. Post #13 is from Karl at Serious Magic.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=64442

Also, this thread has a nice statement by Karl regarding DV Rack on a Mac (just be sure to bear in mind it was written 1/2005) -
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=37682

I'm hoping to get a 17' MacBook Pro pretty soon and expect to run DV Rack and Ultra 2 on it.

Good to know, Thanks Derek.

Sweet! I'm thinkin' about picking up a Tablet PC to use DV rack on.

I'm an idiot, but what is DV rack?

DV Rack by Serious Magic
http://www.seriousmagic.com/dvrackdemo.cfm

DV Rack System Requirements
http://www.seriousmagic.com/dvrcompatibility.cfm

Barry are you able to confirm if the new HVX compatible DV Rack will have support for 720p 50/25?

Many thanks
Mark

(EDIT ... Ooops ... Derek already mentioned this but I'll keep the comments anyway.)

I assume you could use this with a MacBook Pro if you purchased XP and created a PC on your Mac with Boot Camp. (Try doing the reverse on a PC laptop! :o)

Two things I'm intrigued about though ... since you really want to record DVCProHD to an external drive on a laptop (and there's no FW800 in the MacBook) can you add a PC card to the MacBook Pro like you can on the G4 Powerbooks? I'm not sure if they are avaialbe yet and how it would be config'd on a, now, PC. Also, how will the DVR work in this configuration? In addition, would there be any weirdness getting the footage back into Mac Land?

I guess that three things I'm intrigued about ...

Thoughts? Barry? Robert? Bueller?

The 17" MacBook Pro has the FireWire 800 -

Copied from Apple's site -
One FireWire 400, one FireWire 800, and three USB 2.0 ports

The 17" MacBook Pro has the FireWire 800

Thanks Derek ... sorry, I should have been more specific ... the reason to have the firewire card is not necessarily for Firewire 800 but for a completely separate firewire Bus ...

As I posted that last comment and pulled out to the main menu I see that Robert is covering some of the answers already on the MacBook Pro 17".

Thanks guys!

PS - Isn't it so good to be talking about actually working with this camera and not dreaming about what it will someday be like? I'm having fun with my HVX! Sorry ... had to gush.

PS - Isn't it so good to be talking about actually working with this camera and not dreaming about what it will someday be like? I'm having fun with my HVX! Sorry ... had to gush.Too FUNNY!

... and no problem on gushing regarding having the HVX. I know how much I've enjoyed mine (and the ease of the entire workflow). Now with the new MacBooks out and a new HVX version of DV Rack (which someone else came up with a good name for - "DVC Rack") it just continues to boggle my mind what can be done.

Hi Guys,

Just thought I'd mention - we had the DVCProHD demo at our booth running on a MacBook Pro (using boot camp) this week. Works fine. I even used it to record some footage onto a removable USB2 drive, and that worked fine as well.

I hope NAB was great for everyone! Now, I'm off to bed!

Barry are you able to confirm if the new HVX compatible DV Rack will have support for 720p 50/25?

I'll ask...

Oh, another thing: I think (THINK) that it can record straight to Quicktime format. If so, this could be a massive advantage for FCP users. Think about it: no need to "import Panasonic P2" anymore! The footage would be edit-ready the second it's recorded.

The plan would be to use a FAT32 external hard disk, and record straight to that disk in Quicktime format. Then plug that drive in the Mac and EDIT IMMEDIATELY! No conversion from MXF to Quicktime. This could be a really sweet "missing link" that makes the FCP platform even better integrated with the HVX.

Of course, we're mixing platforms here: FCP on the Mac, HD Rack on the PC, but with a Macbook Pro it becomes all one computer anyway...

I'll have to remember to test this...

It can definitely record direct to QuickTime format. It should also support the 50P format as well. (The 50P question I'm not as sure of, but will have an aswer as soon as I'm back in the office.)

Barry - while I haven't tried it yet with DVCProHD signals, I have used MacDrive with standard DV and HDV recording. MacDrive lets Windows read HFS+ (Mac format) drives. Using MacDrive, DV Rack can record to an external HFS+ formatted drive, and you won't run into the file size limits that FAT32 partitions suffer from.

I know there are other questions pending in another thread, and I will get to them shortly.

This could be a really sweet "missing link" that makes the FCP platform even better integrated with the HVX.I agree that would be great, but in my experience so far with my HVX/FCP/Apple workflow, I don't feel like there is a "Missing Link." It all works fine for me.

But then again, maybe I'm not pushing the HVX to the limits like some of the more experienced users here, such as yourself and others. I'm just shooting some pretty simple stuff. :)

One question that I would have on recording straight into a Quicktime format ~
Let's say you shoot directly to Quicktime 7.0 today. Then a year from now Apple is now on QuickTime 9.0 which is using different means, compressions, codec???, or something we have not even heard of yet. If your footage was shot straight into 7.0 wouldn't you be limiting yourself to that version and not be able to "upgrade" your original footage to version 9.0?

The current method would allow you to take your original files and convert them to 9.0 (or whatever's available) down the road as technology continues to advance.

It should also support the 50P format as well. (The 50P question I'm not as sure of, but will have an aswer as soon as I'm back in the office.)

Thanks Karl. Would be great to get confirmation on this. Also thanks to Barry for lending a hand to try and confirm this, very much appreciated.

Mark

Apple is now on QuickTime 9.0 which is using different means, compressions, codec???, or something we have not even heard of yet. If your footage was shot straight into 7.0 wouldn't you be limiting yourself to that version and not be able to "upgrade" your original footage to version 9.0?
Well, you're going to be editing in today's software, so using what's available today makes sense. There's not a whole lot of validity to the idea of "futureproofing" because everything's going to change anyway. Tape formats come and go, computer platforms come and go. Shoot what works today and finish your project, and if things develop to the point where your old platform is threatened to become obsolete, at that point you should be able to convert your data into whatever the "new thing" is.

Codecs and such are not an issue because DVC Rack is recording the same native codec information that the HVX produces, and Quicktime already supports. So even if there were new codecs etc., you wouldn't want to use them, you'd still want the native format support.

Codecs and such are not an issue because DVC Rack is recording the same native codec information that the HVX produces, and Quicktime already supports. So even if there were new codecs etc., you wouldn't want to use them, you'd still want the native format support.Great to know. I figured there had to be a reason YOU were excited about it! Thanks.

I've been using DV Rack since it first came out, and I love it. We shot the entire film "Siren" using DV Rack, and the director (Pat Kerby) announced he never wanted to shoot anything without it. So I've been nagging Serious Magic to produce an HVX version, and when they did, well, I was happy! :)

I have since received an email form the DV Rack guys to say they will be supporting both the PAL and NTSC version of the camera.

Thanks DV Rack
Mark

Any update on this? I just checked Serious Magic's website and did not find any info on a DVCPRO HD version...